Coming Together

These are sad times and good times. The passing of Richard Pearl was felt not only by his family, his wife Anna, his son David and Richard's brothers, but his synagogue family as well. Temple Beth Hillel congregants gathered to pay their respects at his funeral. We listened to Richard's family and to our Rabbi as they talked about his life and we remembered. We heard about the devotion of Richard and his family to Temple Beth Hillel. There were so many ways that Richard, Anna and David contributed to our synagogue life. Then we came together during shiva, to share reminiscences and to support one of our beloved families.

A synagogue community comes together in sad times and good times. One very special Shabbat morning we came together to celebrate the upcoming marriage of our Rabbi to Mindy Radler. What a special and joyous Shabbat! With great love and joy we were witnesses to Rabbi Jeff Glickman and Mindy reciting the blessings from the Torah and then being blessed in front of our ark for a wonderful lifetime together. Mindy chanted the Haftorah with such beauty and meaning. The spirituality of our worship was increased again with Jennifer McCann's lovely voice leading us in prayer. All those in attendance were greatly moved by this Shabbat service. Our Rabbi wistfully and hopefully commented on how wonderful it would be to have this kind of turnout for Shabbat morning services each and every week!

The oneg celebration that followed this service was the perfect partner to our heartfelt worship. Special thanks go to Steve Taback and his family for sponsoring this oneg. We all enjoyed the wonderful klezmer band, Israeli dancing and a very delicious buffet luncheon. It was great for our synagogue family to celebrate together.

Yes, a synagogue community comes together in sad times and good times. A synagogue family also works together in hard times and good times. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could follow the example of these two life cycle events and come together as a synagogue family in all aspects of our Temple life? Wouldn't it be wonderful to put aside our differences and celebrate our devotion to Judaism and our synagogue? How much strength and growth we might be able to find in pursuing nurturing our Temple life together. I do see us doing this as we go forward into the future, G-d willing.

Stanley J. Goldberg, President